


Thunder and Lightening

by Alania_Black



Series: 366 fics for 2016 [2]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 08:18:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5619946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alania_Black/pseuds/Alania_Black
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a dark, stormy night in Chicago, two men trapped together in a hotel room begin to face their feelings once and for all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thunder and Lightening

**Author's Note:**

> Day 2's installment of my attempt to write a fic every day for 2016. I am re-visiting an old one here, actually, that I wrote a few years ago. I have edited and fixed it and added some on to the end - and part 2 should be coming tomorrow :)
> 
>  **Series note:**  
>  I am working on writing a fic every day of 2016, so I don't have time to re-edit each piece on the day (I have other things going on as well), however I have a strategy in place for editing the fics so there will be a polished version available soon. In the meantime, I'd appreciate it if you would not comment with typos and suchlikes until I've published the edited version.

It was a dark, stormy night, the kind of night made for evil stories. But Legs and I had finished our case, we were almost ready to leave the Windy City when this story begins. But there was something standing in our way, preventing us from leaving. Something big, something mysterious -

_“Really? You’re re-telling our story as a 1970s PI trope? And just who is ‘Legs’?” Spencer asked, eyes narrowing dangerously. Derek grinned widely._

_“I could call you ‘Lips’? ‘Pretty Boy’?”_

_“You could call me Spencer. And tell the story properly, or I’ll tell it.” Spencer snarled. Derek snorted._

_“If you told the story, Pretty Boy, the interesting stuff would take two sentences, and most of the story would be taken up by statistics and facts.”_

_“Get on with it.” Spencer replied, pushing at Derek’s shoulder. Derek caught his hand and pulled him closer, kissing him with surprising gentleness before pulling him to sit on his lap. Finally he began to tell the story again._

It was a typical Chicago winter, snow inches deep on the ground. There had been small storms and high winds depositing more snow every few days, and the Chicago police had brought the BAU in when they had realised someone was killing people in time with the blizzards. It had taken another body after their arrival for them to catch the killer, but at least they got him – and in time, too, because within hours of his capture a vicious storm had started up. The storm, according to the locals, could last for up to three days, and the snow was falling so deeply and rapidly that the airports had been shut down. The BAU team were officially stuck in Chicago, in the middle of one of the worst snow-storms of the last few years, with nothing to do.

Derek and Spencer were sharing a room, and with the weather as it was neither man was interested in going out. Prentiss and JJ had braved the snow for a show in one of the theatres, Hotch had holed up in his room with paperwork and Rossi, well, who knew where Rossi had gone to. This meant that they were on their own for the night, until at least tomorrow morning when they had planned to have breakfast as a team.

Strangely uncomfortable at suddenly being alone together in a hotel room, they awkwardly sat in front of the couch and flipped channels on the fuzzy TV until the signal completely gave up under the onslaught of snow. They poked through the small contents of the pay-per-view menu, choosing a movie listlessly, only going through the motions of finding something to put on to cover the noise of the gathering storm and to distract from their own feelings.

Once the movie was on, and they had finally found a place to relax and watch it, things calmed down a little. Derek deliberately relaxed, pulling Spencer’s hair and teasing him to restore their usual status-quo. An irritated glare and badly-stifled smile were his response, before Spencer unwound a little as well, and began reciting facts about the making of the movie, the movie itself and finally about the insanity that was at the centre of the movie’s theme. Derek rolled his eyes and laughed at the other man a few times, but really, watching the movie with Spencer Reid commentating was a lot better than just watching the movie.

They could have probably gone on from there happily, without focusing on the unspoken awareness between them that sometimes made them awkward, uncomfortable. It could have happened, if it wasn’t for the thunderstorm.

“You’re afraid of thunderstorms, Spencer?” Derek asked with barely-hidden amusement, fondness.

“The correct term is Astraphobia, although actually it’s Bronto- or Kerano- phobia, since it’s the thunder sound I don’t like, and Astraphobia also refers to the lightning, which I don’t dislike. It’s a common phobia, really, one in –”

“Spencer, I don’t really care how many other people suffer whatever. I care about you – do you have a problem with the storm? Is there something I can do for you?”

“The first time the phobia showed up, I was in my college dorm. My Mum had just gone into her home, I was alone, and I sat at my window to watch the storm. The lightening was fascinating, amazing, but the thunder – it came out of nowhere, there was no way to predict it, nothing to show it was there except this deep rumbling sound, and I just started shaking with it. I’ve had a problem ever since.” Spencer shivered, jumped when the thunder boomed angrily at the window. Derek sighed and wrapped his arms around the kid, holding him closer.

“Talk to me, kid. What do you need?”

“I don’t... No one’s ever asked me, I’ve never had anyone there when I was... I don’t know what to ask for.” Spencer admitted. Derek sighed.

“What would you do, at home? We can turn more lights on, we can turn the TV up to drown out the noise?”

“I usually just try to sleep through it, but that doesn’t really work.” Spencer replied quietly. “Turning the volume up makes me strain to hear it, and I end up with a headache. Maybe... Maybe I could sleep. If you were sleeping with me?” He asked softly, looking up at Derek through his lashes, vulnerable. Derek swallowed.

“If you think that will help,” He replied, watching the other man closely. When Spencer nodded, Derek nodded back and motioned to the bed. “Of course we can share. Get changed, I’m going to go brush my teeth.”

Their preparations were quick, but as anticipation built in their stomachs, soured only a little in Spencer’s case by the persistent fear, it felt like hours before they finally fell into bed together. Derek wrapped an arm around Spencer’s waist, the heavy presence adding to the comfort of sharing a bed with Derek. With all but the bathroom light off, their warm bed felt like a safe cocoon.

Derek started talking, hoping to ease Spencer’s fears. First he talked of inane things – Clooney’s last walk, where he’d tried three times to trip Derek up, the visit to the dentist Derek had scheduled the following week. Then he delved a little deeper, admitting to his own childhood fear of spiders and the lingering sense of dislike he felt about the little creatures. When he leaned over, to see how Spencer reacted to that, he was surprised to find Spencer asleep, eyelashes a dark smudge against flushed cheeks, lips parted in soft breaths.

Derek huffed with soft laughter, but within one breath and the next, Spencer now cared for and asleep, he succumbed to sleep himself.

_“Really, you watched me sleep? Like a stalker?” Derek sighed, but fondly, and pulled Spencer towards him._

_“I watched you sleep for thirty seconds, Pretty Boy. Like someone who was falling in love. Y'know, you’re kinda cute when you’re asleep.”_

_“Only when I’m asleep though, right?” Spencer asked, eyes narrowed dangerously. Derek held his hands up._

_“Only when you’re asleep, of course.”_

_Spencer didn’t look convinced, so Derek silenced him with a kiss._

_“So, are you going to explain how we got from there to here?” Spencer asked. Derek laughed._

_“Give me time, kid! I’m getting there.”_


End file.
